The Great Drift: Seattle’s First Regatta Ends in a Tie with the Wind

One of the most interesting portions of the celebration yesterday was the grand regatta, which came off at 10 o'clock precisely. Fifteen boats were entered, including first-class sloops like the 'Minnie' and 'Sappho,' second-class sloops such as 'Harvest Home,' and Whitehall boats like the 'Linnx Bell.'

The course for the first and second class yachts was from the finish buoy off Crawford & Harrington’s wharf to a buoy off Freport Point, thence to a buoy in Eagle Harbor, round a buoy at Five-mile Rock and return. For third-class boats, the buoy at Eagle Harbor was omitted.

The wind was remarkably light, and the race was consequently in the most dispiriting order, being from the start but little more than a drift. The 'Linnx Bell' was the first to get about and started on a long tack, which brought her opposite Bell Town, expecting to make the Freport buoy on the next tack, but becoming becalmed lay there for an hour or so and became virtually out of the race.

The 'Sappho' took the windward position and laid her course directly for the Freport buoy. By the time the 'Sappho' rounded Eagle Harbor, the 'Tibbals' had rounded the buoy off Five-mile Rocks and was off on her home stretch. The 'Sappho' then felt the breeze and closed the gap between herself and the 'Minnie' rapidly. She would have come in a good second but for a bad error: in rounding the first buoy she kept it on her starboard side instead of her port, and thus lost her position.

Final results: First class Sloops—First prize, $100, H.L. Tibbals; Second, $30, Minnie. Second class Sloops—First, Harvest Home; second, Albatross. Whitehall Boats—First, Chas XII; Second, Centennial.